Sorry
@adri just noticed your sporty has forward controls. That would be a hard NO on the 883 if I ever did buy in.
Are you liking that aspect at all??
Oh it was a a must-have for me. I bought and installed them. I had mid-controls on my 2006 V-Rod for five years and they were fine because that's an overall bigger bike. But the Sportster is such a small little thing, with such a low seat height (so minimal seat to peg space) that mid controls started getting uncomfortable after five minutes. I think this only moved the foot pegs maybe 7" forward but I'm now much more comfortable.
There's another thing I'm... cautious to share, but, here it goes and we can put it to the myth-busters out there:
To me it feels like handling is easier with the forwards. And I totally get that that should not be the case for motorcycles.
The Iron 1200s a little different though, in my opinion, because on most motorcycles you have a gas tank you can lock your knees to, helping you to leverage the bike, but on the Iron 1200, with the stupid skinny peanut tank, your knees don't touch the tank, your knees don't touch anything, they just flail in the wind.
When I was on the highway with mid controls and the skinny tank, with my little knees flapping in the wind, it was like "oh, this reaaaaaally sucks". With my feet slightly more forward, my weight spread around a bit more of the bike, it makes me feel like I have a little more leverage to compromise for my knees/hips not being "locked in" like they would be on/around a traditional motorcycle/tank.
Maybe it's because I'm only 165 lbs. Maybe it's only in my head that I
feel like I have more leverage over the bike with the forwards and can now use my body more to steer it... but then again, riding is 80% mental, so if all it really does is make me
feel less shaky, that's still a plus, right?
Like I said, I'll leave it up to the myth-busters to pick apart that one.